Page 36 of Lessons in Faking
Nope. Still miles behind him. He remained silent.
“All right, then.” I nodded toward the door of my building as if he didn’t know we had arrived. “I’ll see you Monday?”
He nodded. His hands disappeared in the pockets of his jacket. “Just get in and I’ll be on my way.”
Ugh.Stop. Being. So. Nice.
“Thanks.” At that point, I felt stupid. I hurried to find my keys in the small bag I’d brought with me, to get out of his sight before another useless thank-you came out.
Scrambling inside, I turned back only when I’d made it into the elevator. My gaze met McCarthy’s just as he was about to leave. Unsure what to do, I gave him a smile. One I meant too.
To my surprise, he returned it without missing a beat.
Thanks, I mouthed one last time. For good measure.
Chapter 18
Our morning coffee at Daisy’s became somewhat routine. Only that this week, McCarthy had canceled. The email hadn’t given away much.Something came up. Wouldn’t make it in time.I hadn’t replied, and my fingers definitely hadn’t been itching to type a passive-aggressive response.
Not that I was curious to know what had come up.
Not. At. All.
We hadn’t been alone since The Incident five days ago, which was what I’d decided to call it in my head. Mostly to keep from thinking about what it had actually been: a kiss. A good, damn-near-perfect kiss.
When I knocked on his office door the following Wednesday, the eighth rose he’d slipped into my bag in our lecture earlier peeked out of it. Apparently, he still found that to be as hilarious as ever.
I’d gotten used to the sarcastic “I’d rather not” that he’d shout through the closed door whenever I knocked, but I didn’t wait for it this time. Itching to get back intothat room, I pushed open the door. That was my first bad decision of the day.
Because that’s when Shaw looked down at me—in the literal sense. I stuttered to a halt. Maybe if I didn’t move at all, I’d blend into my surroundings enough to be spared his wrath. Despite the muted colors I wore and despite my utter stillness, he still stared condescendingly over the bridge of his crooked nose. Shaw’s stoic expression didn’t waver, his blue eyes boring into my own.
“Oh my God,” I exhaled loudly, noticing the amused twitch of McCarthy’s lip at my flustered state. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t expect anyone to be here at this time—” Redundantly, my eyes jumped to the clock on the wall above the offices’ connecting door, where it read two o’clock on the dot. I knew it would.
“So why’d you knock, Miss Pressley?”
“I—”
“If you think Mr.McCarthy Williams has no other obligations as my TA, other than tutoring you, there’s no reason to knock, is there?” Shaw’s brow rose. “Especially if you don’t have the decency to wait for an answer.”
“Sorry,” I croaked. It was all I could say without adding a “cranky bitch” at the end of my sentence, and I was lucky I had that much restraint in the first place.
Shaw turned away from me to face McCarthy, who was standing behind his desk. Immediately, my tutor, fake boyfriend, the guy whose lips I was still thinking about, wiped the smug expression off his face. I raised my middle finger behind Shaw’s back.
“In any case.” The professor cleared his throat. “We’re done here, aren’t we?”
McCarthy nodded. “Yes, sir. I’ll get right on this.” He lifted a stack of papers in emphasis. Shaw gave me one last, lingering look of pure evil before disappearing into his office.
“You asshole!” The words flew out of my mouth as soon as Shaw was gone, head turning in McCarthy’s direction with lightning speed.
“What was I supposed to do?” he asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. Give me a heads-up, maybe?” I sat in my chair, bag slipping to the floor. “Text me, call me. Fucking email me, if you have to.” Annoyed, I added, “You knew just fine how to do that a few days ago.”
“Oh.” His head tilted as he took me in. “You’re talking about Daisy’s.” As he leaned back in his chair, a satisfied sigh left his lips. “Have you been racking your little brain about me? Why I wouldn’t make it? What must’ve come up?”
“You think entirely too highly of yourself.”
“Did you—” He gasped. “Did youmissme, Pressley?”
